Double light switch

[michael67]

Please help.

I have just bought a double two way light switch for my living room to replace the existing one. It controls both lights. There is also a single switch at the other end of the room controlling one light. The problem is the new switch has different connections to the old one. I also cannot remember how the old one was wired.

The new switch has two connections on the back labelled L1 COM L2. There are two wires with grey sheathing each having two wires coming out of them. There is also a seperate piece of wire which was connecting two different terminals. The problem is all the wires are RED. Can anyonre help.

 

[Spark123]

You need to identify what each wire does, assuming you have two red/red&earth cables, one of the cables probably consists of a permanent live supply and a switch return to one light, the other two strappers across to the other switch.
The perm live goes to one of the commons and loops to the other.
The sw live goes to the L1 on one switch.
The the strappers go to L1 and L2 on the other switch.
If the new switch is metal then you will also need to earth it.

 

[trey]

Sound like your double switch was 1 one-way and 1 two-way.

If you undo the other light switch and see what the setup in the back of that is,it might shed some light on the way it is all wired.

Have you got a test meter, or a way of checking continuity. It could be that one red is the permanent live from one lamp, and one red is that lamp's switched live. The link could have been to connect the perm live to the other switch (in the double) and the remaining to red wires the two ways leading to the other switch, which in turn would have to connect to the switch live of lamp 2.

That would give you a connection COM-COM, + a red in COM +L1 on one side and reds in L1 and L2 on the other side. Does that sound familiar?